very exciting

last friday i went to blaenafon to visit big pit, the national coal museum (for wales) the mine originally sunk in 1860 (ceased production in 1980) has been open as a tourist attraction for 25 years, as part of the national museum of wales which also operates seven other museums across the country, including museums of wool and slate under it's remit to advance the education of the public "primarily by the complete illustration of....special industries of wales....by collecting, conservation, elucidation and publication of objects and things...." (the charter was written in 1907, but the museum was only aquired by the national museum in 2000) for the story project i wanted to look into the turning of once great industries into tourist attractions and in many cases (certainly at big pit) employing those who had worked in them as tour guides. they are industries that are still viable elsewhere in the world, but here are being turned into history. the departure of labour intensive production to countries with lower wage costs has distanced people in britain from what what were once traditional community industries and is considered by some to have resulted in a rose tinted nostalgia for such occupations. 

that said big pit is a great museum, winner of the 2005 gulbenkian museum of the year. april 2008 saw the opening of a new and very comprehensive gallery of mining history from the geology and mining techniques, through to the dangers, the safety measures, laws, unions, strikes and the communities that grew around the mines - and you get to put on a hard hat and go down into the mine and see it for yourself. 

once i had signed my life away to the national museum of wales (which for some weird reason actually made me proud... ha, i am so silly) i set about trying to capture a party of german school children learning about coal mining in wales. i already new that i couldn't photograph in the mine due to some european numbered mining safety law, i did ask if i had a truly manual camera which never had even the space for a battery, would that be allowed? but no. a shame, health and safety had kind of made sense up to the battery moment.

after big pit it was on to rhondda heritage park which is owned by rhondda cynon taff county borough council and is a much more commercial venture, with a childrens play area and a simulated ride with strobe lighting which have to be pre booked and are paid for attractions. there is also a reconstructed street, a large giftshop and art gallery which both showcase welsh arts and craft.

but... on the way my brother (who was my driver for the weekend) took me past tower colliery at hirwaun. it was made famous by being the first mine in the whole of europe to be bought back by it's miners. when the pit was closed in 1995 250 miners lead by tyrone o'sullivan each bought an £8000 share in the pit that had been closed by the national coal board who considered it worthless. the miners knew there was still coal to be had, and so for 13 years they went on to mine a further 7 million tonnes and to run the pit to a profit until earlier this year when they had exhausted all viable seams. Rhodri Morgan, the first minister for wales credited the buy out of the mine as a pivotal moment in national self-confidence and paved the way for devolution.

we drove up the valley to look down on the colliery that had officially closed on 25th january 2008, just to see what was there. i could definitely hear some industrial noises coming from it so we went to find the entrance. there were no gates so we drove in and parked in the car park. i spied a visitor centre and went over to see if there was anyone to talk to. it was obviously closed up, but i then saw a rather suspicious looking man with a camera (and a plastic carrier bag) snooping through some windows so i asked him if he had any trouble taking pictures, he said no not really but just play innocent... which isn't that hard when you are. so i started to walk towards the main winding tower taking pictures on my way. while i was setting up a shot i felt a shadow fall upon me and so after taking it i looked up and there was a miner standing next to me, i smiled and said "hello". he laughed and told me that if i walked down to the main yard his colleague would show me around. brilliant! i walked towards my personal guide who ,after checking that none of the bosses were there, showed me everything i had previously seen at big pit... but in real working mode. although the mine has ceased production there are still people there closing it down. i even got a tour of the showers, much to everyones amusement. 

the most stressful moment was at the top of the shaft where i was photographing pretty much into a black space, it wasn't until i got home that i saw that there had been someone in the cage and that behind were rails and people working! (i am not sure whether the shots will be any use, maybe in black and white i could play a paolo pellegrin influenced atmosphere card)

throughout the surprise tower tour the light was crazy. outside it was quite dark and thundery, and then inside some lights were neon and then there were tv screens, it was all a bit of a fumble on my part. many of the things were too close to photograph them in context, but i didn't want to regret the opportunity of not trying to get them, and i was whizzing up and down the film speeds to even  get anything without shake. that meant that one of my favorite shots of the day, my guide (wils) in the lamp room ended up being noisier than i needed, but i only realised that on the way home. 

(the pictures for both stories on the digital railroad have further captions) 

it was such an amazing thing to happen and completely unexpected. it was a special trip to me as i had been inspired to do a mine story by a photograph of my mum with the pit at tylorstown in the background. it was kind of my tribute to the photographer who died recently, he had told me that my camera was my ticket to meeting interesting new people and getting to see places i had never imagined - and he was right. thank you.